INFLUENCERS TO FOLLOW ON SOCIAL MEDIA

    SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCERS TO LOOK OUT FOR

  Personally I think social media influencers are basically people with:

v Large following of people in the social media sphere

v They engage with them frequently

v They are able to spark conversations

v  And they are able to influence people’s opinions on certain brands or      products.

With that being said, having these influencers on social media can be of great benefit to Organisations. Organisations can ask these influencers to talk about their brands or products, by doing that they will be able to track how many mentions their brand gets on social media. Gaining them a competitive advantage and also increasing their brand awareness.

The first social media influencer that I think should be followed on social media is Khaya Dlanga (@khayadlanga).He is a senior Communications manager of creative excellence at Coca Cola. He has more than 195k followers on twitter, more than 500 connections on LinkedIn and more than 36,5k followers on Instagram. He is super active on all these social networks and is constantly interacting with his followers.  

Khaya Dlanga,senior communications manager at Coca cola

Farah C fortune (@fcfortune) is also an influencer on social media. She is a publicist and director at African Star Communication Agency. She has more than 18,9k followers on twitter and 7,609 followers on Instagram. She is in the Public Relations industry, constantly keeping a positive image for her celebrity clients such as Casper Nyovest. 

Farah fortune,publicist and director at African Star Communication 

I think Gareth Cliff (@garethcliff) is also an influencer worthy of being followed on social media. Simply because he has over 513999 likes on his Facebook page and has over 906,687 followers on twitter. He is a radio personality and founder of cliff central, an online radio station. He is very persuasive and engaging on all his social media platforms.

Gareth Cliff, founder of Cliff Central

Bonang Matheba (@bonangM) also known as Queen B is an influencer to be followed. She’s a TV presenter, Metro FM DJ and a global ambassador for Revlon products. She has over 956k followers on twitter and 303,7k followers on Instagram. She is looked up to by many, basically she’s just  a trendsetter.

Bonang Matheba, TV and radio host

The last influencer that I think should be followed is Eusebius Mckasier (@eusebius) who is a political analyst, broadcaster, lecture at Wits and a writer. He’s the best influencer to follow because he has over 89,676 followers on twitter and 4,979 friends on Facebook. He’s engaging, responds to comments and constantly sparks conversations. 

Eusebius Mckasier, political analyst

                                         

                                     
                                           video on influencers in social media

THE POWER LIES IN SOCIAL MEDIA

THE #AmandlaChallenge CAMPAIGN TRIUMPH THROUGH SOCIAL MEDIA...

Ever heard of a saying that says “the power lies in the tongue’’? Well personally I believe that the power lies in Social Media. Social media has taken the whole world by storm with over a billion users around the world. With Facebook having over 1,39 billion , LinkedIn with 330 million, and twitter with 284 million and YouTube  with over 800 a billion users per month world wide. Getting the message across has become faster, cheaper and more effective.

Social media sites statistics  

One of the people who took full advantage of this great opportunity is the African National Congress (ANC) with their Amandla challenge social media campaign. Basically what they did was to ask people from all walks of life to take pictures of themselves raising their fists and hash-tag them #AmandlaChallenge.

Participant of the Amandla Challenge 

This got almost everyone from all kinds of backgrounds to participate. Celebrities, Politicians and even ordinary people participated on this huge phenomenon. Still wondering how social media campaigns can be of benefit to organisations? Well because of this decision to involve social media, The ANC got so much media coverage. It got people talking and participating creating a two way communication between the ANC and people. Making it more popular with people.

SRC students doing the amandla challenge

ANC baby participating in amandla challenge

 The amandla challenge hash-tag trended for the whole weekend during the ANC’s birthday celebration on social networks such as Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Making the ANC the most talked about political party during that weekend. Through Facebook the amandla challenge got an opportunity to create an online communication channel, where they were able to share information and events with ordinary people. With Facebook having over 4, 8 million users in South Africa they were able to get feedback instantly.

Ordinary people participating  in the amandla challenge

There is also twitter which I personally think was the most effective social media outlet they used. Twitter was able to group the amandla challenge pictures and comments under one hash-tag which was #AmandlaChallenge. This made it easier for ANC to track all the stuff that was posted about the amandla challenge. With Twitter having over 284 million users in SA and with it being associated with viral marketing, people got to re-tweet and join in on the campaign.

                                          Video on the Power of social media

So by me saying Social media is the future, is an understatement. Social media is just a revolution on its own allowing ordinary people to have a voice and to access information at a faster rate. With the success rate that social media campaigns have, it’s clear that social media is the best way to go, for any sort campaigns that an organisation might need to do.