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.