By TAIYE OLAYEMI

Nigerian rapper and songwriter, Folarin Falana, popularly known as “Falz”, has bagged the Social Media Awards (SMA) for ‘fellow with the best use of social media in a crisis’.

Also, Nollywood Actress, Bimbo Ademoye, won the most engaging actress on social media while Stan Nze emerged the most engaging actor.

During the award presentation in Lagos, Mr Emmanuel Nwafor, Chief Executive Officer of Alternative Adverts Ltd. and convener of the awards, commended the efforts of the awardees toward engaging the social media to remain outstanding.

Nwafor said the event was to honour individuals and organisations that were committed to using social media in innovative and impactful ways.

He noted that SMA recognised those who were pushing the boundaries of what social media could do for good, whether spreading joy, raising awareness for important causes or providing useful information and entertainment.

“We hope that the award will help encourage those into nefarious activities on social media to see a reason to use it for good with the hope of being recognised one day.

“Aside from the awards ceremony, we want to create an atmosphere where social media personalities, influencers, content creators, and brands meet in large numbers, to network, share ideas, and chart a new cause for the future of the industry.

“I must confess that I am surprised to see this number of people here today, it means that we have all witnessed the social media evolution and understand we need to take it seriously.

“The winners announced today are based on the online voting after the auditioning and nomination processes were completed, voting was done from July 1 to Aug. 31,” he said.

Advising the award recipients, Nwafor said, “I have a dream that by the fifth or tenth edition of Nigeria’s social media awards, we can stand and celebrate Nigeria’s own social media platform with at least 50 or 100 million downloads.

“So, I task the social media personalities, influencers, content creators here, and even business people to think of becoming social media landlords in another 5 to 10 years.

“But to achieve that we need to be committed to it and deliberate about it as well.

“It is said that data is the new gold, can you imagine the power you will have or the amount of money you can make if you have a social media app with 100 million downloads, which is instant access to 100 million people.”

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that TECNO CAMON 20, Steady Night Portrait Master, TECNOMobileNigeria won the best audience engagement campaign on social media and Arise News bagged the most engaging TV station on social media.

Lush Hair Nigeria emerged the most engaging beauty brand on social media, while Jumai Nigeria won the best use of social media e-commerce company.

Ify Mogekwu kitchen won the food influencer of the year; Dr Morayo Afolabi-Brown emerged the most engaging TV presenter on social media and Cool FM Nigeria got the most engaging radio station in the year.

Simply Tacha won the social media influencer of the year; Shank comics – ‘mapa’mi naaaa’ bagged the most viral slang maker of the year while Indomie won the most responsive FMCG brand on social media.

Jeremiah Ogbodo bagged the fashion influencer of the year; Rufai Oseni emerged the most engaging journalist on social media and Daddy Freeze won the most engaging on-air-personality on social media.

’Who is your guy’ by Spyro emerged most viral song of the year; Pharmsavi’s Choose health always won the best health content creator while Odinaka Chukwueze bagged the overall best social media content creator award.

For the best entertaining content creator, the audition by Josh2funny, “The Strongest man in the world”, won.

khloes_gram (Leave them alone) won the best tiktok content creator; Chrisland Schools’ First Aid Specialist Training (FAST) emerged best educative content creator.

The award for the best Facebook content creator went to Mark Angel Comedy, “The witch mother in-law”; while Taaooma’s “E-Suli has suffered” bagged the best instagram content creator award.

B.O.D @bod_republic emerged best twitter content creator, Back in Uni By Blaqbonez & Perliks won the best music video on YouTube while Chukwuebuka Amuzia, @Brainjotter, “the trapped soul”, emerged the best YouTube content creator.

MTN Nigeria won the most responsive telecoms company in Nigeria; TEEE DOLLAR bagged the best dance content creator; Yabaleft Online won the blogger of the year and Betway had the award for the best use of social media in sports. (NAN)

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