Social Media a key Business Bridge

Mayor Parks Tau and the City of Johannesburg showed clear and decisive leadership in the crisis that snarled the highway — one of South Africa’s busiest roads — at peak hour. Points people were deployed to all major intersections, travel on Gautrain buses was free and even Uber was drafted to help clear the clogged roads.

Above all, Tau communicated, he communicated again and then he communicated some more.

 

Civil engineering company Murray & Roberts’ CEO Henry Laas could have used social media to respond to the recent bridge collapse on the M1 highway in Johannesburg. Picture: ARNOLD PRONTO

 

He did so with compassion for the victims, while reassuring residents that the roads would reopen as soon as possible and an investigation would probe the cause of the collapse. The City tweeted constant updates to its 183,000 followers.

Tau did, however, miss a beat: he did not tweet from his four Twitter accounts, which have been dormant since 2013. I am sure this will change in the build-up to next year’s local government elections.

...

MURRAY & Roberts fell seriously short on conventional and digital communication during the crisis.

Its CEO, Henry Laas, spent the whole night at the accident scene. He visited the victims in hospital and offered to pay their medical bills. He reassured the public that Murray & Roberts would co-operate in any investigation. There was a constant stream of updates on the Murray & Roberts website.

If this accident had happened in 2003, Laas’s actions would have covered all the bases, but social media has sped up news cycles from hours to minutes and has made everyone with a smartphone a commentator.

I tried to tweet Murray & Roberts. They had no Twitter account. I tried to tweet Laas, he had no Twitter account either. I looked for their Facebook page to leave a comment. They did not have one.

Angry that a listed company did not have a social media presence, I registered the page https://www.facebook.com/Murray-Roberts-1657051881204226/ and left a message saying I would give it to them if they wanted it.

They did not ask for it. I waited more than a week for a response, but none came. So I contacted Murray & Roberts group investor and media executive Ed Jardim, who said they were aware of my stunt.

"You are correct in your assertion around the role of social media for business and I can reassure you that social media engagement is an important component for our organisation — in fact, we monitor the environment in real time through a strategic partner," Jardim said.

He added that they had registered relevant accounts on social media and wanted to engage the public properly on these mediums.

To a certain extent, Jardim is right — there has to be a proper structure in place internally before embarking on social media engagement. Do it right rather than do it badly. It is, however, 2015 and the time for planning is long over.