The Weekend Social Trends Report: #MTNIsTrash, the Durban July and more

vodacom durban july 2016 finish twitter

We know how much you enjoy living your life beyond the confines of your smartphone screen. But come Monday, you still want to hear about the social media highlights from the weekend, right? Well look no further than South Africa’s Weekend Social Trends Report, compiled for you by us, and fuelled by the country’s Twitter, Facebook and Instagram community.

Edition #1, 1-2 July 2017.

Jaden Smith tweets some wisdom on Jay Z’s lyrics

We’ve heard plenty said about Jay Z’s new album from Twitter’s unverified accounts and celebs alike. But one always ready to educate the world one tweet at a time is Jaden Smith.

The After Earth star and owner of the world’s most enlightened Twitter account weighed in on the Jay Z debate this weekend.

“Jay Z Just Reminded All Of Us How To Rap…. Rhythm And Poetry,” he tweeted around 11am SAST Friday.

The tweet was picked up by South Africans around midnight Saturday, amassing over 15 000 likes and 5000 retweets.

You can read what lesser mortals thought of the album right here.

The Durban July: fashion, comedy and politics

This weekend saw a number of high-profile events feature both within South Africa’s borders and across the ponds. One of them was the Durban July. The annual horse racing event attracts the high-rollers of South African society, so it wasn’t odd to see the event itself occupy the country’s timelines.

With it came a load of hashtags too, so bear with us.

#DoingTheJuly

First hitting Twitter around 1pm SAST Saturday, this hashtag was seemingly born by beer producer Amstel but was used by a number of lucky July attendees to flaunt their, uh, dank memes.

#DurbanJuly2017

First spotted in Cape Town, the hashtag took flight thanks to DJ Tira’s “too lit” tweet, featuring a dapper suit and chopper in the background.

The tweet received over 60 retweets and 380 likes.

South African comedian Thenjiwe Moseley also weighed in on the event, with a touch of political commentary, with this skit.

It added a further 530 and 720 retweets and favourites to the hashtag’s impact.

#VDJ2017, #VDJ17, #DurbanJuly and more simply #July were also used this weekend.

Over on Instagram, South African actress Jessica Nkosi, Miss South Africa Demi-Leigh Nel-Pieters, and TV personality Bolanle Olukanni made the big splashes on the social network using #DurbanJuly.

Off to Durban cityyyy. #Durbanjuly here we come. @iamseyishay #mysaexperience #nigeriameetsouthafrica

A post shared by Bolanle Olukanni – Bolinto 😉 (@bolanle) on

MTN’s free Twitter service experiences errors

The #SocialMediaBlackOut might be a thing of the past, but #DataMustFall is still on everyone’s mind. Even if the hashtag is slowly dropping out of the narrative. #MTNisTrash appeared this weekend too, in connection to the Vodacom-sponsored Durban July no less.

The network experienced issues with its free Twitter service, which offers customers 100MB to blow on the social network per day. But today there was a “technical error”.

After 130 retweets, 239 likes and a trending hashtag later, MTN replied.

MTN later alerted its entire follower roll to the issue.

Vodacom couldn’t help but plug its services amidst the scrum.

But at around 4pm SAST Saturday, MTN announced that the issue had been resolved.

Too late? For some, probably. This tweet became mildly viral in Durban amidst the MTN free Twitter issue.

We’re hoping those 559 people who retweeted this still have SIM cards…

#JulyWouldBeBetterIf also poked fun at MTN’s issues.

Feature image: Vodacom Durban July 2016, via Vodacom Durban July

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