Heritage month over

Why celebrate culture or heritage day if we, the elders do not respect our culture?

Picture:heritage month is over.

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ust two days ago we were still celebrating heritage month, being proud of  our culture, and showing other tribes what we got, defining our cultural activities and then we stopped doing it. When I was surfing the internet, today I came across this: I read this online article on city press  

“A sangoma from Soweto has been arrested for allegedly raping a woman who had gone to him for healing. According to Gauteng police the 50-year-old man invited the woman to his residence to carry out a cleansing ritual last night because she believed she was cursed with bad luck, spokesperson Captain Kay Makhubela said. “She was instructed to buy a white chicken and when she arrived with it ... the chicken was killed and the blood was mixed with water and medication.” The sangoma then ordered the 37-year-old to take a bath in another room and not wear clothes after she was done. “Then he went into the room and told her she was healed. All of a sudden, he was on top of her and he raped her,” said Makhubela. The man later threw the bath water out and said she was healed of the bad luck. The man was arrested this morning and a case of rape has been opened.” (http://www.citypress.co.za/SouthAfrica/News/Sangoma-held-for-rape-20121002)

Picture:traditonal bones

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nd now coming to a conclusion I ask myself, why do we celebrate heritage month and plus even have an official launch day (25 September) if we, the leaders are not sending correct messages to the youth? On the other hand we expect every single child to know where they come from, I am talking about their roots, yet there are still traditional healers raping? So what we actually saying to this youth is: it’s ok to help a woman and then pay up yourself the way you want? See it is not only about or referred to the corporate fields that how, and what you say or do frame your organisation, they referred to anyone who deals with the public, I mean now where is this taking us? People from other countries will not trust us which means we might not be able to form any business partnering with them about heritage or culture.

REALITY CHECK

HOW DO YOU KEEP YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE TO TRUST YOU?

When I logged in to my face book on Sunday, on my wall I saw this…..

Picture:faked messages  of Tyler Perry

 

Well, I am a fan of Tyler Perry’s movies because I find them funny persuading educating and the same time entertaining. In my mind then came this question of how do you keep your target audience in believing in you? Tyler Perry came back an wrote an apology letter which states that those comments were faked and there fore he apologise, but how do we even trust that it was him who wrote that letter? After this apology letter there was comments, again how do we gain trust that these comments are originally from him?

But let me tell you what Tyler Perry did to convince his target audiences, he wrote the following in his letter of apology

·         ask for forgiveness and explain what happened

·         gave his fans a low ticket to watch a play

“DUE TO CIRCUMSTANCES THAT I CAN'T CONTROL

Unfortunately, due to circumstances that I can't control, we've had to cancel this leg of the Medea Gets a Job tour.

Here's why. I set a ticket price for the show starting at $25. The reason I set

 The price so low is so that everyone could get a chance to come out and see the show. I know how tight things are right now. I GET IT! I do not tour to make a living, I tour because I love staying connected to all of you. I love seeing your faces, hearing you laugh and seeing you enjoy yourselves. It gives me great joy. Even though it's a lot of work, I really don't mind doing it. Because of that, what I do is make sure that the promoter sets a reasonable ticket price and the prices are $25, $45 and $65 .”if you want to read more,log on to your facebook,search for Tyler Perry and like the page.

BUSINESS REALITY

KNOW YOUR STAKEHOLDER

It is of no use to put all your effort in trying to put together an ad of 24 seconds, and yet you do not know, who your target audience is. It is also going to be an embarrassing moment when you call your major clients with the tittle “dear client”. It might also cause your organisation’s image, to actually turn into a bad image, when you do not even know about the environment surrounding your organisation. Stakeholders are the key to effective dialogue, but who are they and how do you ensure their involvement depends on you knowing them. And it is wise to know all your stakeholders.

Picture:a company satkeholders,each represented by a clour

“A good starting point for identifying your stakeholders is to ask the following basic questions. This is often best done with a third party who is not only independent but will also have experience of stakeholder identification” http://www.smalltalk.org.uk

Picture:different stakeholders in a company

• Who is directly responsible for decisions on the issues?

• Who is influential in the area, community and organisation?

• Who will be affected by any decisions on the issue?

• Who holds positions of responsibility in stake-holding organisations?

• Who can promote a decision providing they are involved? (Enablers)

Advantages of Social Networking: Driving Traffic to Your Website

Social media is a big part of most good marketing plans these days and it has a number of great advantages.  Reaching people in the network of their choice is fundamental and delivering relevant content is a must.  While sharing information through a social network is great, ultimately you will be in the best position if you bring people back into your website.

Picture:firgurativley driving traffic in to ur website

I am just not sure if you noticed that you are an advertiser, a promoter, an informer, a persuader, an educator, for as long as you are on social networks. Let’s face the facts here:

Do not tell me you never tweet or update a status about a celebrity‘s good deeds ever in your life ever since you activated your social network, unless your social network is unattended by you (the owner).We all do it in a way but maybe we never noticed that we are actually selling or advertising that particular person or object

Take for an example, on your face book status you type “yah neh? this man is really in love, wish to have a husband like this in future …now via watching Africa magic on DSTV”

 By me analyzing that I think you are actually saying "hey my fellow FaceBookers watch a movie on Africa Magic on DSTV", but you might not be aware that you just persuaded your Facebook friends to turn their DSTV on and watch that movie. Later on you want to know how many people were persuaded? Just check the comments and like stats.

Picture:social network plartforms

Ever went to your favorite brand, movie or soapie’s social network page? There are stats which are titled “people talking about this”. This is where you know that you are part of the advertising agency but you are just not aware and you are doing it for free.

Social media

Why research is crucial in every social campaign

Just because a certain social media channel works well for some businesses, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it will work for you. There are a thousands of social media channels available to us all. From blogging to Facebook, all of these channels are not created equally or for the same purpose. Wherever you look online you will find many videos, images, and the latest info graphics about all the various social media statistics regarding the best social media channels, but this does not mean we should neglect the research process.

Two business partners, conducting a research

Yes, social media is a powerful platform, where by one MUST have access in an organization, or even for personal usage, but we do not just create a Facebook account, or page for example, just because every company has or does.

 So let us say for example you are selling golf sport shirts for ladies and your target audiences are between the ages of 18 to 35(according to your research) so what can you do? Looking at that demographics, to start building brand awareness for social media?

■Create a Facebook Fan page to build your presence by sharing interesting and relevant content.

■Create a YouTube channel to highlight your products.

■Follow online discussions on various niche golf related forums.

■Creating competitions with prizes will also be a good approach.

  Remember that social media platforms have this message:

Framing an Organisation

Councillor's daughter loses fraudulent bursary

The Bojanala Platinum District Municipality in Rustenburg offers financial assistance to children from poor families who have excellent academic results.This year 25 students benefited from a total of R1.6-million.Among them was 28-year-old Carol Montsho, a political science student at Unisa and daughter of Nkone Montsho, a Madibeng Local Municipal councillor.According to bursary policy, children, spouses and next-of-kin of municipality employees and officials are not eligible.An investigation followed complaints by Bojanala residents to the office of Public Protector Thuli Madonsela regarding the alleged fraud.District municipality spokesman Archie Babeile yesterday said the bursary committee has cancelled the bursary and asked for the repayment of the money already paid to Unisa.(http://www.sowetanlive.co.za/news/2012/08/08/councillor-s-daughter-loses-fraudulent-bursary)
Helping poor kids is the right thing to do,but this 28 year old is neither a kid nor poor. Question is - is anybody going to get fired (or at least redeployed) . I am glad that :

• District municipality spokesman Archie Babeile said the bursary committee has cancelled the bursary and asked for the repayment of the money already paid to Unisa.

I am sure we can get to an agreement that the decision that was taken is very relevant to the situation.How did the spokesperson framed their Organidation?

Events

Landon 2012 Olympics: No mercy for bottle thrower, he deserves a slap.

Pictures:left to right
1. A bottle which was thrown behind the sprinters
  2. Ashley Gill-Webb aressted by metropolice

Ashley Gill-Webb, inside the Olympic Stadium added  drama on Sunday by lobbing a bottle towards Usain Bolt. The fan was sitting next to Dutchwoman Edith Bosch, a black belt in judo who won a bronze medal at the Games. Edith Bosch gave him a slap around the head before he was removed from the stadium and arrested by Metropolitan Police.

Ashley Gill-Webb, 34, pleaded not guilty to a public order offence when he later appeared at Stratford Magistrates' Court on Monday. A police spokesman said a man had been heard shouting abuse and was then seen throwing a bottle which landed behind the sprinters just after the starter told the runners to "set”. He was granted conditional bail and told he would face trial at Thames Magistrates' Court on September 3.[ http://za.news.yahoo.com/no-sympathy-bottle-thrower-gets-slap-055916850--spt.html]

Dutchwoman Edith Bosch, a black belt in judo who won a bronze medal at the Games slapped the man. Wouldn’t it cause her team‘s image to slap Ashley Gill-Webb, without knowing the reasons why he did it? Can we call this “taking laws into your own hands"? What will happen if the man is found not guilty and wants to sue Edith Bosch?

Edith Bosch

A police spokesman said a man had been heard shouting abuse and was then seen throwing a bottle which landed behind the sprinters. I also do not get it why if you are having or you think you have a problem with something or someone, why can’t you face them and communicate; find a better way of solving things, rather than being exposed by media? I mean obviously the man had something to express because he shouted “ABUSE!” What do we call this?

CORPORATE WORLD

A NEED TO BENEFIT BOTH PARTIES: COMMUNITY RELATIONS


SPRA (Student public relations association) is a group formed at the University of Johannesburg by

Pr student cleaning the hospital

Klenkie Mpotu (chairperson) and a group of third year students, who are studying Public Relations and Communications. SPRA consist of a combination of PR students in the University of Johannesburg, from first year to last year. The group started last semester with a vision of helping the community as well as practicing their profession, meaning students get a chance to do many activities which are under PR Practice.
According to Community Relation process, both the community and the organization will benefit and it is also there to help reposition the organization. Last month, on the 18 July (Mandela day).The organization went to Helen Joseph Hospital to do their 67 minutes, doing something for the community. This month again they have a community project happening at Alexandra and later on next month they will be launching their Organization.




PR students at Helen Joseph Hospital garden

The question is how does the community benefit, while the organization benefit as well? The community got a clean environment because the students painted the hospital, renewed the garden, picked up plastics and papers which were just flying around the hospital and cooked food for patients. The students got an experience in community projects and the importance of CSI, while the organization gets a chance to be published, well-known or kept recorded in the University of Johannesburg’s website.

EVENTS

FEED BACK: Planning of the Event SAMAs 18

On Monday, the 30^th of April 2012, a well-known annual event SAMAs (South African Music Awards) was held at Sun City in Johannesburg. The event’s main sponsor is MTN.That is why it is called MTN SAMAs.

I am sure everybody in or from a public relations world will agree with me when I say organisations need to adapt or otherwise they will perish. Looking at the SAMAs event I could spot so many things which concluded that the organisation was not traditional marketing communication but integrated marketing communication.

Take a look at this (short summary of the SAMAs event planning)

Technological department avoided piracy

·         Lights looking at the lights they were not there to provide the light or for decoration but for avoiding piracy (why am I saying that? Who would buy or record a video which has too much lights busy spinning around the stage? I mean it will be very blur and disturbing).

·         Busy background during the performances by artist.

·         Live cameras where not only focusing on artist ‘s performances but also the audiences.

·         Little advertisements in between the live event show(e.g. nominees and those small talks about best nominated artists).




micasa  performing on satge...and the busy background



Entertainment department short highlights

The opening song by all the guest presenters, it was beautiful and so creative different from the previous SAMAs.

·         Solly Mahlangu said "To all media houses, if it you do not play it they won’t hear it, if you don't show it they won’t see it ... thank you" this showed the importance of media.

·         Zahara and MICASA collecting the awards...

 From a public relations point of view, it is always our duty to get feedback from our target audiences. Although they are two kinds of feedback namely:

·         Symmetrical feedback and

·         Asymmetrical feedback

In symmetrical feedback, we get feedback immediately while in asymmetrical we get a delayed feedback.

In today’s issue, I would like us to give feedback about the event. How was their planning? Voice out your feelings.

CORPARATE WORLD

CURRENT EVENTS: HUMAN RIGHTS DAY SOMETHING NEWSWORTHY THIS MONTH?

Have you ever heard, seen or told more often(three to five times a day) about an event that is still to happen maybe in three or six months? Have you ever heard, or being told more often (everywhere you go) about an event that had happened maybe three or six years ago? The questions have you asked yourself why not?

In Public Relations we called that news worthy and currents events

News worthy is:

·        New news

·        Interesting news/entertaining

·        Very current

Take a look at this…

                 

South Africa observes the celebration of Human Rights Day on 21 of March to remember those who perished in the highly sensational event called Sharpeville Massacre that occurred on March 21, 1960.

South Africa Human Rights Day seeks to ascertain that the South Africans have developed an understanding of the various human rights they are entitled to and can protect themselves against human rights exploitation

Know your Rights… Like no one else!!(http://qampus.blogspot.com/2010/12/world-human-rights-day.html)

 Have you heard more often about the human rights day the past last months? Comparing January to March about how often you heard about the human rights day and this April you will see that the frequency this month is very high. Why?

Because: human rights day is current and news worthy and this is what people would like to hear about this month. But you cannot come and publish events about human rights day in December, during Christmas festivals becauspeople want to hear about Father Christmas and bonuses during December times.

 What do you think news worthy enough?

SOCIAL MEDIA

BLOGS: WHY BLOGING

 

As bloggers, there is one thing we have in common and it is not lack of quality sleep. I am sure we always want more, or at least wish for more subscribers, more comments, more followers, more pageviews, and more opportunities. But is that enough?

According to the IMC (integrated Market Communication) from a public relation point of view it is important to create and nourish stakeholder relationships.

We also have to migrate from:

·         transactions to relationships

·         customers to stakeholders

·         mass media to interactivity

And many more…My point is we are to create stakeholders, well done! That is what every blogger is aiming for (getting followers), BUT THAT IS NOT ENOUGH. We also need to nourish relationships with these stakeholders in these case, your stakeholders are your followers.

The question is how? If we want to say "I LOVE BLOGGING"

 then we must do the right thing when we are blogging, otherwise you will just create a BlogSpot and end up quitting on it.

 And the answer is…

We need to reply, comment back to your blog post. Let us not focus on our costumers(in this case, costumers are people who comment on your blog) only but even stakeholders(your followers) are important ,who said if they do not buy your product  today they will not buy it in future?(who said if they did not comment today they will never comment in future?).Let us keep the relationship going while creating other relationships. Let there be interactivity (dialogue), feedback and conversations between you and your flowers.

My point is why are we blogging if we are not meeting the simplest rule of blogging which is commeting or called interactivity(dialogue)?

MEDIA ISSUES

RED BULL ADVERTISEMENT: ANTI CHRIST?

red bull advertisement Jesus

According to Chris Moerdyk(coloumnist) Jesus is saving not selling

Chris Moerdyk
Advertising rule #1: Jesus saves not sell
"I have been watching with a mixture of amusement and frustration, public and advertising industry reaction to the Red Bull "Jesus Ad " saga. It's always the same thing - those who have little interest in religion tell Christians to get a life and not take things so seriously. Christians respond with a lot of huffing and puffing."(http://www.news24.com/Columnists/ChrisMoerdyk/Advertising-rule-1-Jesus-saves-not-sells-20120319#.T4gO_CFUsuM.facebook)

Lets then look at The 5 steps of a Good Advertisement

Each step plays a specific role. As a marketer, you must always remember that you are the uninvited guest. People are busy, and don’t spend their time looking for advertisements

The first step is getting attention. This is the job of the headline.  A good headline will cause your target audience to stop and examine the rest of the ad. Think about old western movies with the snake-oil salesman, claiming a miracle tonic that can cure anything. These days people are looking for much more specific goods and services. Thus, the headline must be specific as well as attention-grabbing.

Second, a good ad shows the reader who has graciously allowed you a few moments of their precious time just how they will benefit from the product or service you are peddling. Note that I say show them the benefit, not the features. That comes later. Again, these benefits need to be geared specifically for your target audience.

Third, your ad must prove that these benefits must result from use of your product or service. This would be the time to introduce some key features, and explain how they will allow the user to realize the benefits you claimed possible. When it comes to this section, people like specifics. For example, don’t say “Realize gains of up to 50%!” do not use round “nice” numbers. Go with “Realize gains of up to 49.3%!”

Fourth, reinforce the benefits, and perhaps add some more. Give examples of what they could do with all the money you’re trying to save them, or all the time they’ll save by buying your widget or service.

Fifth, and finally, call for action. This is where your “Call Now" statement goes. Try to add a sense of urgency: “This deal only lasts til noon Friday!”

All good advertisements incorporate these 5 principles in some form or another, and any bad ad is usually bad because it has neglected some part of this pattern.(http://milleronmarketing.com/32/the-5-principles-of-a-good-advertisement/)

BUSINESS REALITY

PUBLIC RELATIONS IS NOT MARKETING: DO NOT GET IT TWISTED

Marketing and public relations sometimes get people to be confused, are you in the same situation? You are about to find out what makes them differ. Even though both work to promote but there are significant differences between the two.

Marketing
Marketing deals mainly with product awareness and promotion. Those involved with marketing work to promote a specific product or service a company or organization offers. Marketing professionals will concern themselves with the products the company provides, the customers and their needs, and are working to look forward to what the next product will be or how to promote it. A marketing approach will work to sell a product rather than an organization by taking into consideration demand, competition, and how to get more people to purchase services or products.(http://sunheecho.blogspot.com/2011/07/what-is-difference-between-advertising.html)

An effective marketing plan will accomplish the following:

·         Define a target market in order to know who to promote the products towards.

·         Identify the customers and competitors. Knowing competitors and their strategies will help a company to stay ahead by remaining competitive.

·         Outline a strategy for attracting and keeping customers as well as identifying change

Public Relations

Public relations deals more with the company itself. A public relations professional is more concerned with the public's view of the company and the company's reputation rather than trying to get the public to purchase the products (although the two often go hand in hand).

A public relations campaign will work to do the following:

• Increase and maintain visibility and public awareness of an organization, company, or event
• Help the public to see the organization as an industry leader
• Increase awareness of the organization's programs, products, and services throughout the community, state, country, or world
• Help enhance and maintain the organization's image
• Support and organize efforts with regards to fundraising
• Act as liaison and support in the event the organization experiences any negative publicity(http://www.businessknowledgesource.com/marketing/the_difference_between_marketing_and_public_relations_026011.html)

EVENTS

WRITING SKILLS: Plan before you start writing

 

What happens if a colleague has just sent you an email relating to a meeting you're having in one hour's time. The email is supposed to contain key information that you need to present, as part of the business case for an important project. But there's a problem: The email is so badly written that you can't find the data you need. There are misspellings and incomplete sentences, and the paragraphs are so long and confusing that it takes you three times more than it should to find the information you want.(www.learninggroup.com)

 

Use these top eight points for your writing and you will never be the same old boring writer again.

·         Identify your main theme – If you're having trouble defining the main theme of your message, pretend that you have 15 seconds to explain your position. What do you say? This is likely to be your main theme.

·         Use simple language – Unless you're writing a scholarly article, it's usually best to use simple, direct language. Don't use long words just to impress people.

·         Structure -Your document should be as "reader friendly" as possible. Use headings, subheadings, bullet points, and numbering whenever possible to break up the text.

·         Proof your headings and subheadings – People often skip these and focus on the text alone. Just because headers are big and bold doesn't mean they're error free.

·         Read the document out loud – This forces you to go more slowly, so that you're more likely to catch mistakes.

·         Use your finger or the mouse point to follow text as you read – This is another trick that helps you slow down.

·         Start at the end of your document – Proofread one sentence at a time, working your way from the end to the beginning. This helps you focus on errors, not on content.

·         Kiss (keep it short and simple)  -Avoid long sentences or paragraphs because  u end up loosing the whole content , meaning or sense.  

·         Check out the correct words that you want to use- do not get confused. For example: Company's/companies (and other possessives versus plurals)(www.academicladder.com/toolkit)

 The greater your writing skills are, the better the impression you'll make on the people around you , including your boss, your colleagues, and your clients. You never know how far these good impressions will take you.

You see? That is why we are blogging to keep us on track to avoid issues like getting fired in a corporate world.