Outline of the Twitter Conference

1. Introduction FGM/C
2. Brief history on FGM/C campaign
3. Brief history of endcuttinggirls social media campaign
4. Definition of celebrity advocacy
5. Who is a celebrity advocate
6. what are the importance of celebrity advocates in campaigns
7. Practical examples of successful advocacy programmes
8. FGM/C eradication and celebrity advocacy
9. Limitations of celebrity advocacy
10. Strategies to get these celebrities committed to the network

TWEETS

1. Its few minutes to our Conference today, let us all get ready as we discuss extensively. #endcuttinggirls
2. Our topic is “celebrity advocacy as a key strategy in the campaign to end FGM/C”. #endcuttinggirls
3. The conference will be anchored by @ojorojustice, @okorievictoria4, and @HonOlamoses sequentially. #endcuttinggirls
4. Questions will be answered at the end of the session and we urge everyone to stay put till the end of the session. #endcuttinggirls
5. We wouldn’t be quick to mention the significance of celebrities and FGM/C advocacy because #endcuttinggirls
6. We would like all especially those joining us for the first time to have a good knowledge of FGM/C, #endcuttinggirls
7. Its effects on the girl child and history of abandonment campaign. #endcuttinggirls
8. FGM/C is an acronym for female genital mutilation and cutting. #endcuttinggirls
9. It is any partial or total removal of the external female genitalia or any other injury to the female genital organ for nonmedical reasons. #endcuttinggirls
10. FGM/C is carried out on young girls between infancy and age 15, and occasionally on adult women. #endcuttinggirls.
11. There are effects of FGM/C on the girl child. They includes; severe bleeding, vaginal infections,. #endcuttinggirls
12. Urinary tract infections, pain during sex, painful menstrual cycle, infertility and in some cases death occurs. #endcuttinggirls
13. The endcuttinggirls campaign aim to uphold the rights, health and dignity of girls and women. #endcuttinggirls
14. It hopes to reach out to concerned people through the entire available social network in the society. #endcuttinggirls
15. It also hopes to enact change in this generation and improve the lives of women through the social media. #endcuttinggirls
16. Celebrity advocacy is therefore conceived as a means of engaging celebrities to partake in the End FGM\C campaign. #endcuttinggirls
17. As a celebrity they are allowed to declare their views and opinions on the FGM/C abandonment campaign. #endcuttinggirls
18. Celebrity advocates for FGM/C abandonment are admirable celebrities who are actively changing the society for better. #endcuttinggirls
19. Selfless celebrities who fight for different cause in protecting the life standard of beings are sort after. #endcuttinggirls
20. The importance of celebrity advocates in FGM/C campaign is a trigger to quicken its abandonment. #endcuttinggirls
21. Their involvement could be offline but mostly online(websites and social media platform).#endcuttinggirls
22. For the purpose of the endcuttinggirls campaign, we hope to involve them online as we can raise more advocates from there.#endcuttinggirls
23. This is also because social media platforms have a lot of target audience for the End FGM/C campaign. #endcuttinggirls
24. Their presence in the EndFGM/C campaign will aid educate the public and attract more advocates in the campaign. #endcuttinggirls.
25. Thank you for that discussion @ojorojustice. I will take up from here and discuss practical examples of campaign carried out by celebrity advocates. #endcuttinggirls
26. So many campaigns have been made successful through the efforts of some of celebrities. #endcuttinggirls
27. But this entirely depends on the alignment between reputation and authenticity of the celebrity. #endcuttinggirls
28. Celebrity advocacy also needs a lot of creativity and ingenuity by the Celebrities. #endcuttinggirls
29. This is because they have a lot of followers online and offline and whatsoever they respond to at least 50%of their followers will respond too. #endcuttinggirls.
30. In February,2016 Aisha Buhari called for campaign against female genital mutilation on Feb. 10^th #endcuttinggirls
31. This campaign idea was bought by some states in eastern Nigeria like Ebonyi State. #endcuttinggirls
32. During the launch at the Ebonyi State, a renowned celebrity known as Chioma Chukwuma was invited. #endcuttinggirls
33. Something remarkable happened in the course of the event. #endcuttinggirls
34. The hall was noisy but became quiet immediately she took charge of the podium. Her celebrity status paved way for her. #endcuttinggirls
35. That was just an offline campaign with over 500 persons in attendance. #endcuttinggirls
36. The Funke Akindele of Jennifa’s diary joined the campaign to end FGM\C in May,2017. #endcuttinggirls
37. She joined an aspect of the campaign called frown challenge.This will be hinted on at the end of the conference. #endcuttinggirls
38. Immediately she uploaded her frown picture in instagram,a lot of persons liked it and eased us a little stress on frown challenge publicity. #endcuttinggirls
39. Other celebrities who have joined the campaign includes Sherifat Aregbesola who joined Dec. 6^th #endcuttinggirls
40. David Cameron in London on who campaigned against FGM/C on 22^nd July 2014. #endcuttinggirls
41. Freida Pinto, an Indian actress attended summit to end FGM\C and this made wave on social media.
42. Thank you so much Victoria for the awesome work done .I will continue from here.
43. I will be discussing on the limitations, merits and demerits of celebrity advocacy. #endcuttinggirls
44. We vividly know that no matter how productive something might be there are always limitations. #endcuttinggirls
45. These celebrity advocacy limitations have been discovered in areas of developmental issues. #endcuttinggirls
46. As stated by Martin Scott in New York Times. #endcuttinggirls
47. “Celebrity advocacy is not good at raising awareness of development issues”. #endcuttinggirls
48. FGM/C isn’t a developmental issue so the limitations in getting them could be access. #endcuttinggirls
49. So many of them are not easily accessible as such get them involved consistently might not be easy.
50. Nevertheless, easy access to the network of a person is an easy way to access the person. #endcuttinggirls
51. The merits of celebrity advocacy include larger audience, saves times and money for publicity. #endcuttinggirls
52. Easy recruitment of advocates, saves more life and makes the message reach the unreached easily. #endcuttinggirls
53. The major demerit might non acceptance of the image of the celebrity. #endcuttinggirls
54. Non acceptance does not mean less followership. Most celebrity has a lot of followers but with diminished acceptance level. #endcuttinggirls
55. So in the involvement of celebrities in the FGM/C campaign, we must ensure that the person posses the following. #endcuttinggirls
56. Public acceptance, followership and good social voice. #endcuttinggirls
57. The quick response of the people to the celebrity advocate depends highly on his/her social voice. #endcuttinggirls
58. With the detailed merits of celebrity advocacy discussed, we will briefly discuss on the strategies to get them committed to the campaign. #endcuttinggirls
59. The key strategy in engaging Celebrities to end FGM/C is to bring those who maintain a social voice. #endcuttinggirls
60. Firstly, they can be involved in the Enactment of laws against FGM/C. #endcuttinggirls
61. The authorized usage of their pictures in grass root advocacy. #endcuttinggirls.
62. Consistency in tagging them on the various social media platforms as we believe this will get them to look up the post. #endcuttinggirls
63. Access their network of friends to enble them participate in all the campaign strategy like the frown challenge. #endcuttinggirls
64. Special invitations to them during launch of abandonment campaigns or public declarations. #endcuttinggirls
65. We have come to the end of this session.Questions are welcomed ad e belive to attend to all. #endcuttinggirls.