HOW PF HAVE NOW BECOME KINGS OF SOCIAL-MEDIA
By John Noel Lungu
UPND Member
HOW THE PATRIOTIC FRONT IS TRYING TO WIN THE SOUL OF SOCIAL MEDIA..
INTRODUCTION.
According to the Patriotic Front, they claim they have already taken over the grassroot.
Historically,Social Media has been used as an effective tool for change across a broad spectrum of society.
We saw how Social Media played an important role during the Arab Spring.
Zambia too has had its fair share of using social media fostering change especially during the 2021 general elections.
It is an open secret that without effective influencers on social media our party was not going to scoop the previous general elections.
Whoever underplays the importance of social media does that at their own risk…
ANALYSIS.
LESSONS FROM TRADE KINGS.
The Trade Kings media group is privileged to be run by a person that I shared the same business administration class with.
James and his team with a supporting management have succeeded in fostering growth of business and the company using very effective media tools.
We should not forget that the owners of Trade Kings are Muslim but James and his team have succeeded in creating a bridge between the owners and the rest of the country by rolling out affordability as well quality driven by a liberal sophisticated media campaign.
If Trade Kings wanted their own way they could have been using Imams and beautifully veld virgin Muslim girls to run and appear on media campaigns.
Was that strategy going to be welcome by the average Zambian consumer? The answer is an obvious NO..
That’s were tact comes in and James and his team have managed to deliver that.
The choice and use of models, actors and diverse personalities in their advertising campaigns is exemplary.
The acting not only delivers appropriate messages but the overall objectives of the business at play.
Because of that,there has been some kind of symbiotic relationship and reciprocal royalty between Trade Kings and it’s customers that is going to stand a test of time.
THE PATRIOTIC FRONT PREDICAMENT.
After falling from grace the Patriotic Front is slowly mastering the art of exploiting social media.
One can easily smell the presence of the Patriotic Front footprints all over social media.
As the Bemba adage says ukopoka ichinsenda kunkoko kunakilila . Hope I have said that right.
The PF are now on almost every local and international platform posting and responding to almost everything from jokes, sex, sports, arts, economics, business, religion, politics, arts ,education etc.
Their ultimate goal is to win the hearts and minds of the Zambian voter.
The Patriotic Front has succeeded in cohabiting with Zambian netizens but they have not succeeded in marrying the Zambian voter. What is preventing a successful social media marriage by the PF with the Zambians is its bad history of mischievousness..
Zambian’s will take a lot of time to heal from the heartbreak that was caused by the PF.
The Patriotic Front can and will never win the trust of the Zambian voter because of it’s bad historical record of corruption and disorder.
Zambian’s on social media may be willing to have conversations with the PF but they are not ready to take the PF hand in marriage for now. But like a consistent boy asking for a girl out the PF has kept on pushing without giving up.
The PF is taking advantage of a number of factors and weaknesses on the part of the UPND.
The PF has come to realise that the UPND is slowly losing grip with the grassroots based on the biting economy and other factors such as inactivity and disconnected party functioneries with the grassroots.
THE UPND
The UPND has very good planners and managers but we lack structures and tools that are privileged with the ability to engage with the grassroots.
We are also short of extroverts with the right vocal cords and charisma to engage with the Zambian people. These are important requisites in any marketing campaigns.
Most of our ministers are so quite like they work in the mogue. Politics is more about meeting people than it is about locking yourselves in offices.
Muyopa Chani?
The other biggest problem is the fact that our leaders prefer burying their heads in the sand, living in denial and not accepting that this is a big discrepancy.
The know it all attitude by our leaders is hugely affecting our political standing.
There is a school of thought within the party claiming that most of the UPND media platforms are underfunded.
That is true to some extent.
However, that does not take away the fact that our platforms are still operating like we are still in opposition..
Most of the articles and posts being churned out by our media platforms lack tact, are divisive, provocative ,offensive, poorly researched and mediocre in most cases.
We can’t win the hearts and minds of the Zambians with such approaches.
We need to pull our socks and churn out material which is based on objectivity,professionalism and most importantly highlting our achievements.
I can state with confidence that a good number of the posts on the UPND platforms are responsible for decampaigning the President and party as a whole.
Look at how we have failed to highlight and expose most of our achievements on social media.
There is a lot that the party in government is doing but information is not filtering through for the political benefit of the party.
Take for instance free education. I expected to see both government and party media platforms going on the ground and interviewing beneficiaries of free education and Skills burseries.
Our Members of Parliament have also not exploited the use of social media when it comes to the issue of CDF.
All they do is hold ceremonies handing over Checks and it ends there. There is lack of innovation in handling social media.
We should be following through by showing the people benefiting from CDF and how these funds are helping our communities and contributing towards community economic emancipation.
Our platforms seem to be concentrating on which civil servant has not been fired to be replaced by our own cadres..
CONCLUSION.
We have a lot to learn from Trade Kings as a party on how they have been handling their media campaigns.
We might have very brilliant ideas but how those ideas are channelled makes a big difference.
Let us learn to admit our weaknesses and appreciate the importance of using the right people and right tools in our publicity endeavours.
UNTIL we realise the importance of the impact of social media we will continue to bleed political numbers.
I submit.
John Noel Lungu.
Zambian Whistleblower is on YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, Telegram, Facebook and TikTok