Wednesday, 23 March 2016

# Zuma must fall

Hashtag Zuma must fall campaign it is started on social media after president Jacob Zuma decision to fire finance minister Nhlanhla Nene and replace him with little known David Van Rooyen.His removal have seen South African economy collapse to read more about this story (Click here)

The South African citizen have used the social media platform to explain their disappointment about president decision to sank Nene.(Click here) to view some of the tweets that the South African were expressing their view on how they feel about leadership style president. Public relations practitioners have to be vigilant themselves and advice the state employee on how to engage on social media especially on sensitive campaign like this, because it can cost them their job if they were not cocious about what they write on their social media.

The public were coming together during hashtag Zuma must fall to force the removal of the president, saying the president do not care about the country. This have led to the Democratic Alliance proposing the motion of no confidence against the president at the national assembly in parliament (Click here) to view the video of debate in parliament for no confidence motion.

And as the practice of corporate social media for Public relations practitioners during this difficult time of demanding the president to be recalled, they have to participate on social media be part of the conversation giving explanations of what have motivated president to take sack minister who was performing well.

Social media have given freedom to ordinary citizen to view the images of protesters during Zuma must fall campaign ( Click here).This campaign have given other political parties to openly criticize the (ANC) and also state the influence that the Gupta family have on government, because its friendship with the president ( Click here) to view the article about comments of the opposition party.

In similar campaigns like this it is important for Public relations practitioners to advise their seniors to own up for their mistake. Social media platform can be an important tool to use to convey the massage of apology to the citizen. Because when the president do not apologise the public will not stop criticizing him. It is Public relations practitioners duties to do the research on how South Africa rate their ministers performance, and this research can be done on social media so that when time to replace ministers they are no strikes because the ministers who are not performing have been mentioned by the social media research.

# Fees must fall

During hashtag fees must fall campaign student across the country have stand together on social media fighting for zero increment of the university fees to view more information read this article on ( Daily Meverick)

Social media is very important tool in this time we are living. Importantly especially for Public relations practitioners when they are carrying their respective duties at their corporate environment. The practice of corporate social media have make it more difficult for Public relations practitioners to carry out their job more effectively. This is because they no longer have control on what people say about their brand.The public on social media express their feelings and unfortunately their feelings in most cases tend to be the negative ones instead of positive.

During this time of negative spread of information about brand that Public relations practitioners works for, it is their duties to get involved on these conversations on social media that affect their reputation. They must write positive massage explaining their side of the story, but their side of the story must not encourage violence or dismissing the outcry of the student. It is Public relations practitioners’ duties to clear the atmosphere by being transparent and constantly responding citing what they are doing as a university to end the conflict. Example to view how the universities have responded view this page(Article)

You can also view this video ( Click here ) of striking student raising their concern about the management of their universities wanting to increase the tuition fees across the country. Here are also picture of angry student during hashtag fees must fall (  Some of the protestors marching    )Image

Corporate social media not only make Public relations practitioners job difficult it makes it easy, since it is very important communication tool. Public relations have taken advantage. This was evident during the strike by university student, during this time Public relations used social media to communicate with student about their meetings with leaders of student. Their tool conveying message was social media (click here)to view the post of universities making announcement on social media. This makes it easy for Public relations practitioners to respond, because the information is circulating about them they know their brand is being criticized, so they have to prepare positive message and importantly have to be honest.

In future Public relations have to be active meet with the concerned parties and creates social media page that will deal with the issue and include frequently asked questions that they can maintain one concern at a time, because when they do not do that the concerned parties brings more issues. For example student were fighting for zero fees increment that is why hashtag fees must fall campaign stated, but it ended up including the issue of race among the universities and how not transformed they are.