IS COVID-19 A GLIMPSE OF THE 4IR

The Novel Corona Virus has shaken the entire globe, and economies are shrinking every single day. The world leaders seem defeated.

With no sign of fastly developing a vaccine, all of us are wondering what will happen in the nearest future.

The Corona virus has on the other hand showed us how a lot of things are going to change and happen in 4IR time, there will be no need to meet up or gather in group on certain events. A lot of things will be done online.

It is an opportunity to gear up and prepare ourselves the world is rapidly changing, and we need to catch up quickly.

Your thoughts on this matter?

SUSTAINABILITY AND POWER OF SOCIAL MEDIA (#ZumaMustFall).

Seven steps of using social media in a strategic way.

• Build a content plan.

 do not stick to one type of media, have ongoing presence on social media, and that includes                delivering content which is fresh on daily basis.

• Choose correct channels of social media online.

  for practical example you can use LinkedIn, which is a good platform to target for business to             business sales or Pinterest if you are in fashion business.

• Develop your message online.

must have a key message that is short, simple and interesting to customers based on the           personas and relationships that have been created online.

• Characterize the online audience.

know what the customers expect and what they want to see and hear online, the nature of their personality and their demographics.

• Look at the competition online.   

scrutinize the market carefully in order to know exactly the necessary tools that are needed to             get the boll rolling, this can be the content plan which is the steering director of the desirable             content which suitable online.

• Understand your goals online.

 know what you want, do not end up confusing the online audience by boring and long content always keep it short, simple and sensational.

• Create measurable objectives online.

 have goals that are realistic and achievable and this includes the large number of traffic or       followers on social media.


Advantages of social media.

• Social media can be used as a marketing tool to promote products online.
• Basic information provider, such as e-mail address, telephone number and fax numbers.
• Communication tool that can interconnect a stakeholder and a company.
• Messages can reach a millions of audience within short space of time.
• Saves money and time as it is a dominating process.

Disadvantages of social media.

• Social media sometimes create problems which are wicked or do not exist.
• Destroy the company's name if not used professionally.
• It can be hacked and important information can be accessed illegally.
• Can cause confidential issues, employees can be angry with the management of the company and leak important information online, such as financial status and brainstormed ideas. 

#ZumaMustFall

The Zuma must fall hashtag has trended nationally and internationally, it has made it easy for the practice of corporate social media because it has a large number of traffic that was supporting the hashtag Zuma must fall as it was the right thing to support due to several issues about president Jacob Zuma's cabinet, chaos in parliament, our local economy, the zupta relationship and Nkandla home upgrades. www.news24.com/.../news.

The hashtag has proved that social has the power to reach a millions of stakeholders and pass the particular message that is important to the stakeholder whether good or bad. it also ensures or point it out that when using social media companies must be careful of what they post online as it can back fire and tarnish the corporate image of that company, for example Zuma has been seen on public with the corrupt Gupta family and as a result his actions has tarnished the reputation of African National Congress (ANC) and South Africa as a country because we are now losing investors and global partnership because of zuma.

when using social media networks such as Facebook and twitter hashtag must be used in order to draw the attention of the traffic, the particular used hashtag must be short, interesting and simple to understand.

Nkandla Homestead.

Nkandla homestead in Kwazulu-Natal 
www.thecitizen.com/../news-president-Jacob-zuma

  

 When using social media it is very important to comment when people post something      about the organization, if taking their comment lightly it will create untrustworthy feeling.  

 President Jacob Zuma answering questions in parliament.
www.ANC.blogspot.co.za.

President Jacob Zuma shouting at DA in parliament.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HR17cS_Efck.

Corporate reputation is very important to an organization, Public relations practitioners must advice the executive management to carefully know what they are doing when engaging in the matters of the public, such as open days, exhibitions and sponsorship's

events to avoid ending up with damaged reputation like the company above by not knowing exactly what are the negative outcomes for such actions which may be offensive to other stakeholders of the organization. 

BLACK CONSCIOUSNESS IN BLACK SOCIETIES (#BlackLivesMatter).

#BlackLivesMatter.

Activist Marshawn Mccarrel of black lives movement.
hhttp://www.youtube.com/blacklivesmatter

The power of social media.

A young black lives matter activist who goes by the name Marshawn Mccarrel deliberately shot himself just at the age of twenty three (23). It only took few hours for all of us to reach the news that Marshawn Mccarrel has took his own life, my point here is to highlight the fact that organizations can now manage to participate in global market using social media and can manage to get customers, but they must have a well developed message to convince the international market.
www.nbcnews.com

Personal steps to take when using social media.

• Speak from the heart when posting online content.
• Be conversational in tone when replying messages.
• Make sure spamming on single social media network is avoided.
• Do a qualitative research to find out about the recent trends.
• know what the public expects from the organization.

The black society is filled with the brutality of policemen who kills black residents in the streets of America, the idea behind black lives matter is to make sure that black people must return to their grassroots and support the black people's products. www.vice.com/.../blacklivesmatter

Black lives matter protesters in Montgomery
www.vice.com/..../blacklivesmatter. 

Black lives matter poster
www.nydailynews.com

Online collaboration.

Digital media has taken over print media. The only target that companies can target is the youth as they participate in large numbers online and they can also form some online collaboration and share information and fresh ideas on how to solve issues that affect both the organization and the stakeholders, both internal and external stakeholders. www.nydailynews.com.




Debating online.

Social media can also help the public relations practitioners to debate online through discussion boards when it comes to controversial matters and can also manage to clear the organization's image by using content that is professional and which is based on observational facts.
www.vice.com/.../big-debate.
www.youtube.com/.../blacklivesmatter.

When communicating a particular message organizations must be clear on what it is trying to say because some people can twist the organization's original message and translate that message as a bad message of which is not the actual truth, the black lives matter banner above proves the fact that when passing a message to the public you must be clear on what you mean to say to the public and always keep it short and simple.