"Source: A picture of a male in corporate social media stressing about his future in his
work field."
.One of South Africa's popular phrases is once again load shedding. As a result of a "trip" at the Nuclear Power Plant in Cape Town, the nation is currently experiencing stage 6 blackouts, which is continuing to have a negative impact on the PR and media industry in general.
The current problem of Eskom load shedding which started back in 2007 (11 years ago) in the country of South Africa, has left an ample amount of individuals in the Public Relations (PR) field stranded and questioning the brightness of their future in their field of work. This is all after they started feeling the severity of the pandemic #Eskomloadshedding, when this problem was causing bad network/internet connection causing their audiences to not be able to engage resulting in there being a decrease in post viewership and the some audiences getting the information after its expiration or being less relevant while some even not getting the information at all due to new trends arising.
"Source: A picture illustrating how
problems can be solved”
Challenges and Opportunities faced by the Corporate PR Social Media Field in the current Load
shedding!
Challenges
The rolling
blackouts implemented by the South African energy company "Eskom",
had a huge negative impact on the corporate social media field ever
since stage 6 of the blackouts has been implemented, whereby the outages of the electricity will be for 6
hours resulting in there being unstable internet and sometimes internet
connections not being there at all, resulting in the PR specialists in
corporate social media not being able to research on recent information
affecting a person’s daily life e.g. News around the world, Trending topics on social media platforms, The current conditions of the Weather.
However, the above mentioned challenges are not the only challenges faced by those in the corporate social media space during load shedding as the power outages also brings about website traffic, affects the rate of increase in brand awareness, Disturbs and decreases the audience reach, Prevents proper Author and Audience engagements .
Opportunities
Even in all the
previous mentioned challenges faced by the corporate social media space, it is
still believed that gone are the days whereby the darkness of the sparkling
country could result in the future losing its brightness particularly the
future of those in the PR field in general. The PR team in corporate can use
these issue to campaign creating awareness for there to be a curb in
electricity and cable thefts, they can use hashtags as a mean of trend
setting a mass audience reach, they can also write in their socials on how to
bring solution to load shedding.
Recommendations for the strategic use of social media to stop loadshedding.
The PRPs should
consider blogging more about load shedding and how the solutions to it can be
implemented, host campaigns about load shedding, and frequent the use of hashtags to set a trend that will guarantee a mass reach.
Solutions to load shedding will be very effective since we are aware of how difficult it is to live without electricity in the modern world and during the fourth industrial revolution.
ReplyDeletePRPs can play a huge role on disseminating information and raising awareness about load shedding
ReplyDeleteI appreciate your engagement, i truly believe so too.
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ReplyDeleteI like how you have explained about how pr can do in order to help eskom
ReplyDeleteNot only is this post insightful but also enlightens the brains of the masses to remain hopeful even in the midst of hopelessness, who would have thought that the future will still remain bright regardless of the dark location in which it presently is in or it finds itself in. After reading this i knew that the future has a safe place for its existence.
ReplyDeleteYou're an innovative and creative person. It's very clear to me that you enjoy solving problems in different ways and using your creativity to develop new ideas. It's great seeing you use your creativity and innovation to perform well in school.
ReplyDeleteIt's clear that you take pride in your work. The confidence you have in your academics is impressive. Self-confidence is a great trait to have.
ReplyDelete