SOCIAL MEDIA TO THE RESCUE...

Reputation Management via Social Media

 Welcome to my first blog ever. My name Nhlanhla Shezi, I am a second year Public Relations and Communication student at the University of Johannesburg. I am thrilled to present  my thoughts on the South African e-tolling system and how social media can and could have assisted in its reputation management. It has taken me a lot of thinking, contradiction and role playing to come up a with win-win solution for all stakeholders involved. After reading this blog, I hope that you're not only enlightened  but also entertained. Relax, feel at home and don't forget to share your views on the matter.

File photo by Ihsaan Haffejee
source: times live

 As you may remember the 2010 Soccer World Cup hosted by South Africa, a Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GFIP) was put in place to widen freeways and ensure bottlenecks in interchanges were resolve.  The GFIP which was planned before SA's World Cup Soccer bid was accepted, is an initiative by the South African National Road Agency Limited (SANRAL)  which is also accountable as state-owned entity to parliament via the Minister of Transport. SANRAL announced the E-toll system which was its only means of paying back the debt by the GFPI. It sanctioned motorist in Gauteng to paying e-tags and noncompliance is considered a criminal offence. The number of complaints, strikes/protest and anti-campaigns... that followed emphasize the power transparency.

A short snippet of how citizens respond when feeling deceived

There are plenty of social media channels such as Facebook and twitter that the E-toll can take advantage of and increase its awareness in a positive light. Although transparency does not come without a price, it is essential that the e-toll puts itself out there to hear out the voices of its stakeholders, mainly its citizens.Lets look at far less dramatic ways in which E-toll could have avoided controversy through the use of  Social Media, I present to you
Guidelines to good reputation management using social media

transparency

• Being Transparent- Discussing both the GFIP plan and the E-toll before implementation would have allowed for citizens to voice out their opinions and not feel deceived.Transparency in any organisation whether public or private is very important. It is mostly crucial in South African government as citizens  have the need, right and desire to know why, how and on what basses decisions are taken. Some South Africans that could afford to pay their tags chose not to purely 
• Regular Interactions- All SANRAL and related website have a top-down communication and its impersonal on social media such as its twitter . This can be made more conversational. 
• Open up to criticism and feedback- YES, We all dislike negative comments and opinions  spoken about us, the E-toll could have helped show it public's that it cares by responding. 
• Hiding from criticism- can only make things worse it may show guilt, rather than remorse and wanting to understand the citizens. 
• Address the Public- There are a number of phony social medias and anti-campaign accounts created on behalf of upset motorist. E-toll should have addressed citizens that these were fake and therefore should not be taken into consideration. If not they some of the people who go online may believe these to be legit. VERIFY ALL ACCOUNTS.



DO NOT HIDE

• Asking for feedback- Citizens are not the same, they are different individuals from different backgrounds, they may have different opinions and even suggestions. For instance, others just cant not afford to pay their e-tags and may not qualify for discount, if the e-toll would be willing to hear the out and maybe come to a consensus or compromise.  Encouraging  feedback may actually be good for the E-toll. 

Till we meet again, lets continue to use social media in ways that can benefit both us and our stakeholders, don't forget to share our views, signing out, goodbye!