What a great time to be alive, so proud of the Youth of Today. #FeesMustFall

Students protest during #FeesMustFall

The youth of today stood together to fight for their basic human rights of education to change the country’s education structure and stop it from increasing insanely so they can accommodate those that cannot afford to pay for their tuition fees. #FeesMustFall was started by students from different Universities aimed at the same goal of not being excluded from studying.

Brands did react to the movement, and there are negative and positive responses to the movement. Some brands could have come out in support of the movement and placed their resources and all that might be essential in assisting the movement.

The negative results of the #FeesMustFall movement 

Companies did not look after the interest of their customers which resulted in lost productivity; brands are there because of people of their community and public, so they could have given back by helping students with at least bursaries, reducing their sales or giving them resources. It was time consuming for brands to up and monitor activity on what is happening and being said in order for them to respond to the situation and keep up with current trends. Mr. Blade made a mean comment saying “Students must fall” and was used against him and resulted in loss of credibility from students

Without a doubt there were many positive results 

On the positive side, students used social media like Facebook and Twitter to target a wide range of audience and this allowed organizations and students to discuss ideas, post questions, post news and share links about their way forward and celebrities supported the movement. Organizations were able to communicate with their audience like Mo’Flava from Metro FM radio station announcing that they will provide buses to the union building for free, giving water to students during the protest and free wifi. Also their channel of communication allowed organizations to respond quickly to negative comments directed to them and address issues, many brands discovered and delivered more information on social media

Benefits of brands responding.........

When brand respond to such issues they will get exposure and also they will garner support from society as their contribution would have been seen as a form of a social investment. I.e. Increased revenue, and to the students especially those who come from unprivileged backgrounds. I.e. The University of Pretoria ensured that poor students will get to register for free and UJ raised R30 million from fundraising.

The power of social media proved that a hash-tag can bring people together aimed at the same goal and do everything in their power to achieve it.

Students at UCT fighting for their basic human rights