Vickie Remoe is a firecracker!
She first burst on the scene through her highly entertaining, yet informative lifestyle TV show, The Vickie Remoe Show. With just the right blend of intelligence and sass, her show was a big hit considering there was nothing like it coming out of her native Sierra Leone. She has since rode that ride all the way to New York where she is currently studying at the Columbia University’s School of Journalism. Take a look at what this future media mogul has to say as our next AfriPOP! social media socialite.
Real Name: Vickie Remoe Web Name: Vickie Remoe
Best known for: I think I am best known for my TV show [Vickie Remoe Show]. It was the first of its kind from Sierra Leone, so it peeked many interests. I did everything from climbing a palm tree on camera to sleeping on a highway in Senegal.
Where are you from/live? I am from Freetown, Sierra Leone. I live between Accra and New York
Places to find you online: I am very present on facebook, twitter, youtube, bliptv and on my website Swit Salone
When and how did you enter the social media game? I’ve been on facebook since 2005 and on twitter really only since last year. But now both mediums for me are really crucial to curating and sharing my work and things I find Interesting.
What do you mostly tend to use it for? I use social media to aggregate news on Sierra Leone, Liberia, and the rest of Africa. But I also use it to keep in touch with my wide network of friends.
How has it helped you grow your brand? Social media has played a really crucial role in helping me share my content with the world. The reality is that when you are starting out, the large news agencies etc will not come knocking. But bloggers and folks on twitter and facebook will help you share your story and your brand. Also, the beauty of social media is that we can all be publishers. There is no such thing as being on the periphery any more. We can all be part of the conversation.
What is your message? Africa is complex and beautiful. And most importantly, there are many African stories waiting to be told.
If you could have one person follow you on twitter who would it be? I only want one person to follow me and that is Idris Elba. Only because I hope that after he follows me on twitter, we will then make arrangements for him to follow me in real life.
If you could have one person join twitter who would it be? I want Jeffrey Wright to join twitter. He does really amazing work in Sierra Leone and I would love to follow him
Who should every African be following right now?
I think thats a really loaded question because it would somehow mean that every African person needed to know the same thing or have the same interest. But since you earlier asked about social media and brand promotion I will say that everyone should follow me. Because I am genuine, funny, insightful, and ever so often I uncover really amazing facts and stories about the continent.
What is the role of social media in the “Africa” conversation?
Africans no longer need to wait for the BBC or AFP to report our stories. Moreover, Freetown, Monrovia, and Nairobi are no longer miles away. Social media has reduced the distance and allows all of us to be able to learn about whats going on in other countries. But I must say that social media is not representative of “Africa”. If you are illiterate, if you don’t have access to the internet then you are not a part of the conversation. We need to always be conscious that there is still a great technological divided between rural and urban Africa, and between Africa and the rest of the world.
Who is benefiting most from the rise of Africans on social media sites? I’m not really sure but I guess google and facebook are benefitting because they now have all this information and data about a large group of people whose data they could not previously sell to advertisers.
If you could invent a social networking tool for the future, what would it be?
I’d like to invent a networking tool that would allow African farmers to connect nationally and internationally so that they could share techniques, get buyers, and learn about costs etc.
