A leading content creator, Rahamat Audu Yahaya, on Monday, urged Nigerian youths to embrace content creation as a viable solution to unemployment, stressing the need for self-reliance and active contribution to national development.

Yahaya described the rising rate of unemployment among young people as worrisome, noting that many have lost their self-esteem due to poor financial conditions.

She disclosed this during the maiden edition of the Content Creators and Influencers Seminar held in Lafia. She explained that she saw the need to organise the event, in collaboration with her colleagues, in order to educate young citizens of the state and Nigeria at large on how they can use social media to earn a living, instead of depending on white-collar jobs.

Yahaya, who is the convener of the seminar, said the event, themed “Mastering Social Media for Growth, Impact and Income,” also aimed to educate participants on the rules of engagement across various platforms to help them maximize opportunities.

She said: “You can start using social media platforms to generate money. When I say money, I mean real money, either in Naira or in Dollars. Social media pays, but it depends on what you are posting, and your views. They don’t just pay you because of the likes you get. No, it is because of the views. So, it depends on how you are using the various platforms.”

Yahaya, therefore used the opportunity to advise the young citizens who may be nurturing the idea of going into content creation, to start immediately no matter the current challenges that they may be passing through.

She added, “The advice that I want to give to young people that are starting content creation is that they need to be very careful of what they post, and they need to know what exactly to post at the right time.

“The person can start with any phone, but the phone’s camera should be clear. It does not have to be too expensive. Just ensure that the camera is clear while filming, and with consistency, I am very confident that such a person will develop very fast in content creation and start earning.

“Social Media as a tool for Civic Awareness, one of the speakers at the event, Faisal Sanusi Ibrahim noted that it was important for content creators to understand civility, and generally happenings within the country.

“That is why you get to see some social media content creators get arrested because they do not understand the social media act. So you need to be very civil in approaching social media, dishing out your contents and understanding the modus operandi of how the social media works.

“So basically, that was what we did and gave. And also, I told them about the opportunity of the Developing Africa Group that is also willing to see how it can help content creators make money from Nigeria while they advertise for other companies from Canada and other places from around the world.”

Also speaking, digital creator Faisal Sanusi Ibrahim, highlighted the importance of civility and awareness in content creation, particularly in understanding social media regulations.

He urged young content creators to be religious tolerant while interacting with people on social media.

Ibrahim said: “And I mean, what else would you need for somebody to be worthy to be given an ambassadorial award than that? And she is bringing a whole lot of people to make sure that the Developing Africa Group gets to the highest place within Nasarawa State and even out of it.

“If something happens to a Christian, talk about it. If it happens to a Muslim, talk about it because humanity is first in every single thing that we do. So do not be selective in your content creation and also make sure that you use your platform to amplify the cry of the masses.”

A lecturer at Isa Mustapha Agwai I Polytechnic, Abubakar Sulaiman Ogah, stressed the importance of responsible and meaningful content creation.

He noted that the aim of the seminar was to enlighten young people on how to create meaningful content in order to boost their appearance and their status in the society.

Ogah said: “It is important that they understand the kind of content that will not violate rules or instigate violence or stuff like that. The contents they are to be creating should remain within the policy confinement of the social media app that they are using because it is a common mistake among young people.

“They tend to go extra miles to create content just to go viral. So, we needed to enlighten them and make them understand that there are rules and regulations regarding content creation.”

Earlier, Chairman of Nasarawa TikTokers, Muhammad Yusuf, noted that content creation has become a powerful tool for tackling unemployment through personal branding and monetisation.

Yusuf said: “Content Creation and Monitization Opportunities”, Yusuf explained that most young people in the state who previously had no jobs, are currently earning well through the social media and making great impacts in the society.

“At the moment, the Nasarawa Tiktokers have about 100 members with a collective fellowship of over 20 million followers on the Tiktok platform. Today, we gathered the content creators to enlighten and educate ourselves on Social Media aspects regarding monitization , restrictions to social media, and other activities. We are hoping to improve our social media skills and activities after this seminar.”