VF+ logo

Today it is the turn of the Freedom Front Plus / Vryheidsfront Plus to be reviewed in terms of their online presence.

A search for Freedom Front on Google.co.za only yields results for www.vryheidsfront.co.za

On the site itself, I can find any button/link to an English version of the site. At least I have no trouble understanding Afrikaans and will review the site all the same.

Besides all the standard bits in the navigation, I was delighted to see a button that said ” Listen to Pieter Mulder” ( party leader).  Clicking on it, I was offered either a “stream MP3″ or “download MP3″. The disturbing part, it was for a 2005 speech made in parliament!

The “aansluit” (joining) form is available in either down loadable or online format.There is a newsletter subscription option allowing you to choose either an Afrikaans or English newsletter. A sample of the newsletter is available from the Newsletter link on the site.

Something called Say Your Say ( se you se) is nothing but an online form asking for your details and a space for your message. Nowhere on the site do I actually see where others have said their say!

The home page contains a list of recent press articles as well as recent speeches. The speeches are only listed in text on the site. No audio or downloads available.

Something interesting is a link that that reads SA Talent. That takes one to a web site www.satalent.co.za, sponsored by VF+

The home page of the site states:

“There are many skilled South Africans locally and overseas who would be happy to work in south Africa but are prevented from doing so by affirmative action.

This web site gives an opportunity to such people to record their skills on an easy accessible data base. We will convey the information to the government and personnel agencies on a continuous   basis.”

A number of other campaigns are run on the site such as Keep the Springbok, Keep Pretoria Street names, etc.

The Youth tab takes on to yet another site: www.vfjeug.co.za

I did find a VF+ channel on YouTube with 6 videos and an official facebook group with 274 members.

This news from the weekly InternetWorldStats newsletter:

Since January 23, 2009 several blogs and news media websites are publishing misleading headlines saying “Internet users worldwide surpass 1 billion in December”, “Internet Usages Reaches Over 1 Billion” and similar erroneous expressions. To justify their biased information, the authors cite this press release from comScore,Global Internet Audience Surpasses 1 billion Visitors.

The journalists got the title right, but did not read the fine print and assumed that a part is equal to the whole Internet. Only a few writers got things right, TechCrunch among others. We feel that we have to say something in order to set the record straight, and defend our numbers.

Internet users in the world already hit one and a half billion persons approximately in July of 2008. The current estimates of Internet users for 2008 year-end (2008Q4) according to our database, which includes ALL the Internet users universe, comprises over 1,574,313,184 persons worldwide. The Internet Penetration Rate is 23.5%, considering a global population of 6,710,029,070 persons according to the U.S. Census Bureau data.

How are companies communicating with their employees during this time of crisis. Sales are dwindling, contracts are not signed or being renewed and people are loosing jobs on a daily basis.

See this article on ConnectingTheLink about some insight and research on this topic.

Google cuts staff as radio plan fails

http://tinyurl.com/cq5a7g

okay, today its the turn of Patricia de Lille and her merry band of politicians.

Let’s see how they fare:

The site has Google sitelinks displayed in the search engine results page for “independent democrats” a good start, I guess.

The main focus of the home page is a listing of the latest ID news, snippets with read more links. Although all “news” worthy, it is actually only comments of either Patricia de Lille or Lance Greyling on various issues. It would’ve been good to see “ID in the news” rather.

The biography of Patricia de Lille is quite detailed and makes for interesting reading. The details of the others are far less informative with one leader only having his photo, title and name on the site. One other has only his name and title listed. Not engendering a great deal of confidence there!

The newsroom features articles about ID and De Lille specifically as published in various newspapers and online. No links to those articles are in place though.

Something very interesting is a link to ” ID Lifestyle Plan” from the party site.

The intro on that site:

” Welcome to the Independent Democrats Lifestyle Plan directory . As a valued member of the Independent Democrats you automatically qualify for a range of discounts, services and benefits at our partnered service providers.”

The only way to see what the benefits are is to log in with your party number. Don’t have one handy…lemme know what you find there, if you have a ID member number at hand.

There is an online “sign the people’s pledge against crime” just an online form.

All in all, no great shakes and not too much of Obama’s online campaign rubbing off here.

The most interesting element is an online form allowing you to join the party.

I’ve put a lot of effort into following the 2008 US elections online. I’ve written posts about the online presence of Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John McCain and others and all their online woes.
Well, it’s time to look at what the South Africa political parties are doing online.
So, here goes party # 1: Congress of the People:
URL: www.congressofthepeople.org.za

Why no COPE.org.za?

Anyway, the site has all the “about us,” what we stand for and “donate to us” that you’d expect.
The donate button is actually quite interesting: sms xxx for a R 10 donation, yyy for a R 30 donation and xyz for a R 50 a month donation.
The site layout and design is very basic and it is obvious that they did this on shoestring budget or got it for free.
I did see a media section however with press releases for download in powerpoint format and even a media only online forum.

Interesting section: blogs; get your own COPE blog and say what you think.

There’s a sign-up section but no explanation or motivation / incentive for me to sign up. No free T-shirt or cap?

An events calendar ala Outlook style is basic but makes sense with events listed on the day on the calendar.

Manifesto posters for download is an interesting tool.

Off site:
facebook: 17 290 members on the COPE group and 885 discussion topics with lots of posts on each topic.
YouTube: a YouTube channel with 7 videos, 46 subscribers and 1074 views as of today.
Twitter: nothing to be found under COPE or Congress of the People

You got anything to add that I missed?

This just in from Andy Beal:

See how you can ruin your online reputation in just a couple of hours, courtesy of the Michael Phelps case study.