Speaker Spotlight: David Mugo

I am a Kenyan ICT consultant mainly focusing on digital media & technology. I am currently working as an adviser to Kenya’s vice president and also the current chairman of Wikimedia Kenya. I developed and helped implement the digital strategy for Tanzania’s President Jakaya Kikwete’s re-election campaign in 2010.

I have studied digital marketing trends and more so in the African market. A run a digital marketing agency based in Nairobi that also runs one of the biggest online technology, entertainment and lifestyle magazine, Niaje.com.

I am also the organizer of WordCamp Kenya, this year’s being the second one in the country.

Session: Pushing Your Blog into the Social World
Time: 12:00 – 12:25

Website

Tell us more about how you became interested in WordPress, what about it drives your continued interest?

My interest in WordPress came about after trying many other options to offer my clients an easy to use CMS. At first I developed a custom CMS but building it to meet every client’s need was too much work. I started exploring and while I had only used WordPress as a blogging platform, I realized I could easily customize it to work for my clients. It suddenly became my only development CMS. The continuity of my use and interest in WordPress is driven by the fact that there is a bigger community now, more and more people have used WordPress and when you present it as the CMS behind their websites, the just love it. WordPress is also up to date with the latest web technologies, keeping it relevant.

Why did you decide to speak at WordCamp Cape Town?

For me it is a chance to give back to the WordPress community and also a great chance to learn from other speakers and attendees. This also greatly helps me in the organization for WordCamp Kenya which is coming up in November.

What is your talk going to be about?

My talk will focus on integration of social media into your WordPress driven blog or website, how to and how NOT to share content, choosing the right networks to populate your link and more so, how to get a viral effect from different social media channels.

What is the one thing you want people to walk away with from your talk?

The ability to differentiate between sharing content relevantly and spamming, especially when blogging or sharing about a business brand. Social media can upraise you or lose you customers.

What is your favourite WordPress theme and/or plugin, and why?

WPTouch is my favorite plugin, I use it with my own sites as well as client’s websites. The African web is mostly mobile and there is nothing as good as knowing you are delivering your content in the right format without having to put in too much work into redesigning your interfaces.

Can you share one WP tip with us?

Always ensure you have your permalinks right and keep your ping services updated. This keeps your content and the search engines in love, you get more visibility, easily.

What are you most looking forward to at WordCamp Cape Town 2012?

Meeting new people from all over, speaking at a WordCamp outside my country and for sure, seeing the beautiful South Africa.

Do you make money from wordpress?

Yes, I use WordPress as a CMS to deliver websites to my clients.

Is WordPress an effective platform for getting your message across?

Most definitely, it is the best, I would not be on it if it were not. There is so much you can achieve with WordPress, it is simply able to deliver anything you might need to send any message across.