The use of social media for public engagement

The use of social media for public engagement

students march to the Union buildings in Pretoria

Students at the Uninion building in pretoria,Marching for the Fees must fall 

South Africa is a country where issues have always been swept under the carpet.The start of change These problems have now surfaced in the public arena. They share the view that political freedom is not the only freedom that needs to be achieved, they also want economic freedom that will ensure that every young person has access to free education, better opportunities in life. Moreover young people have taken the advantage of modern communication channels such as twitter, Facebook, watsup etc.Where young people are able to express their frustrations on a public platform.South Africa need to listen On the hashtag fees must fall campaign the social media strategy was a huge success because this campaign gained momentum. The conversation that happened online managed to get the offline attention as well, where by the conversation online took to streets through coordinated protest and petitions nationwide.

Social media 

Media went wild with coverage of this new movement which sparked massive conversation nationally and international. According to what has been said above the campaign was truly a social media success. It’s reported that even students as far as London and Canada were in support of the campaign and conversations grew from just being a South African campaign to the world wide hashtag campaign.Fees Must Fall

Fees Must Fall

For me the advantages of the social media on this campaign is firstly they understood the targeted audience and they had the perfect message to gain following, Hence a strong connection with all the prospective stakeholders to gain their views and debated the issue was the right move.

Mr Blade Nzimande addressing the students

Another advantage was that this campaign managed to engage the government, private sector, students, the universities, civil society and the parents, hence this became a national debate.The Campaign.The greatest disadvantage was the time frame given to government and the universities to respond to all that was happening. They needed time to assess the situation and come up with reasonable solutions but unfortunately when information goes viral on social media, it becomes difficult to control.

I strongly recommend that creating measurable goals is important in achieving the social media success. Goals allow you to explore the direction of when and how far you want to grow your campaign. I personally believe that a successful social media campaign such as this one requires the specific objective which will provide measurable results. Credibility is important, facts and evidences are crucial when handling information on social media.Social media and PR