The Power Of Word Of Mouth: How This Black Woman Built An Online Community Of 1.7M Women

Lola Omolola is a former Nigerian journalist who founded the Female IN (FIN) group on Facebook – a private group for women with nearly 1.7 million members where others can share their untold stories regarding their sexual abuses and other challenges they are facing.

FIN’s genesis can be traced to 2014 when nearly 300 girls were kidnapped from a boarding school in Nigeria by the Boko Haram militant group.

According to what she’s previously told the media – the kidnapping represented the worst form of patriarchy: men were targeting young women for getting an education and Omolola said it shook her. She needed a way to be part of her country’s mourning and healing.

So she turned to Facebook and started the group, which scaled up quickly.

How did it grow? The group has grown through word-of-mouth. First, she invited friends, who invited friends, and then she organized real-world meetups and encouraged women to respond to each other respectfully.

Omolola used the platform to share stories she found on the Internet, mainly on Facebook and Twitter, about women’s issues. She never thought she would create a Facebook network that stretches to 60 cities throughout the world as she originally studied to be a journalist.

As a young adult, she worked in the radio and television industries. She even had a couple of her own shows. After a few years of being successful, Omolola won a visa lottery to come to the United States.

She quickly enrolled in college and received a Bachelor’s degree in Broadcast Journalism from Columbia College in Chicago.

Omolola started working at the Community Counseling Centers of Chicago and that gave her insight to the struggles that many people are dealing with.

Along with the Community Counseling Centers of Chicago, Omolola continued to work with the television and radio networks in Nigeria during big award shows and events in the United States but reportedly decided to quit when she had children. She and her husband wanted one parent at home with the kids and since her husband was making more money than her, they mutually decided that she would be the one to stay home.

“While I was home, I started teaching myself how to code because well just because I’m home doesn’t mean I have to do nothing,” said Omolola. “I eventually started my own website, spicebaby.com, that featured Nigerian recipes and I couldn’t believe how popular it had become. That’s when I really started to get into Facebook,” she told lasentinel.