Comments on: Thoughts On MyANC.org

By: Marcel

Marcel — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 18:57:12 +0000

It’s not a ‘Social Media’ site. It’s not even ‘Web2.0′.
And only in English?

Clearly a #fail.

And what boggles my mind completely is that if they really were looking to make this a breakthrough in political parties’ websites, they could have called at least 10 industry leaders in South Africa for advice.

Clearly, what we have here is not a lack of expertise, knowledge, information or experience – what we have is a lack of management & leadership.

And I’m not too impressed with the other parties’ sites either.

Even if they had just bought a Ning.com site & changed the template…

By: vincent

vincent — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 20:51:37 +0000

I think aesthetically it looks pretty decent. The URL clearly is a web – no – no.

I actually find most of the comments about the site quite revealing, they generally overlook the primary strategic errors this site commits.

A)The primary target market of the ANC is not surfing the net for warez and looking for a forum to vent – in general they are looking to the ANC as an aspirational entity unto which they can project their hopes and dreams for a home, a job and decent education. At an emotional level this site doesn’t reaffirm the ANC brand but rather reveals the ANC’s desperate attempt to piggy back onto a marketing channel they have little or no experience with. Simply put sack their media planner.

B) The site is available in a single language, engels. Possibly should have allowed for an immediate translation into either Zulu or Xhosa which would have cemented this site as a representation of the ANC.

C)Seeding initial content with sloganeering and what could only be called “inorganic content” generated by fake users is pure stupidity and taints the entire experience as a farce – a stage upon which pro ANC propaganda can be heralded as open political discourse.

All in all just a poorly executed online communication strategy with so many flaws it’s difficult to even bother attacking the ANC. Unless of course that was their evil diversion tactic.

By: Matt

Matt — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 13:36:29 +0000

@Arthur very good points! Haha, the gallery really does look ridiculous!

@Noel I also look forward to the new DA website. The current one that was launched end of last year really doesn’t do much for me. I think its the typography that I don’t like…

By: Noel Harrison

Noel Harrison — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 12:41:59 +0000

Those were more or less my thoughts. I liked the design, but the URL, I also noticed that very quickly, it does not make much sense at all. Otherwise I more or less agree with what you said. The DA’s new website is supposed to be going live sometime this month, so im kind of excited to see what happens there. I think Obama did have an affect on SA political parties and renewed excitement and hope in the average South Africa – that their vote can actually make a change.

Noel

By: Arthur C. Van Wyk

Arthur C. Van Wyk — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 12:31:56 +0000

Not to mention..

the sinfulness of launching a gallery with 4 pics.. ONLY.

perpetuating the politics of personality by splurging Zuma’s face on the index page.. under the guise of “Message from the President”..

and making regional contact details available only after seeing how well it worked for COPE..