Are Facebook and Twitter really the way to go?

The freight industry has expressed widely polarised views on the value of social media in a business context. In an FTW survey we came up with a 50:50 split of opinions on just how much importance it held in the minds of industry executives. This follows a presentation by Professor James Stock of the University of South Florida at a recent meeting of the Transport Forum in Cape Town that the logistics and supply chain sector must embrace social media in all its formats as it moves into the next era. MD of Bidfreight, Anthony Dawe, for example, was supportive of the concept of using the social media – particularly the i-Phone – as a tool of communication. “We use it a fair bit already,” he said, “and a lot of our businesses in the group contact clients through it. Also, groups amongst our management use it to talk about business issues.” He suggested it was quite simple to keep stuff on the company’s computer systems, and share that data using SMSs to i-Phones as just one other means of contact through the social media. However, Dawe did warn of the evils of swamping clients with an oversupply of data. “You must be careful not to overburden these guys,” he told FTW. “It’s also valuable not to overplay it, because it is just another means of communicating.” On the con side, Glenn Delve, marketing director of shipping line MSC, told FTW that they were not at this time making any move into social media. “Yes, we have Smartphone communication if someone, for example, needs an answer,” he said. “But not the likes of Facebook and Twitter." Graham Peinke, MD of SACD Freight, even suggested that Prof Stock was possibly being “a bit mischievous”. “He was pulling big figures out of the air to illustrate his ideas,” Peinke said – quoting Stock’s statement: ‘In the first quarter of 2012 some 900 million monthly users expressed over three billion opinions a day on Facebook. How many are about your firm?’ “Now just how many do you think would be about SACD,” Peinke added, “just another boring old freight company? The users of the social media are more interested in things like today’s news of someone building a rockery mountain on top of a hotel in Beijing. Not many of those three billion opinions a day would be about business matters relevant to SACD Freight.” That led on to Peinke considering just what involvement in social media would be applicable to his company. “At SACD and Bidfreight Intermodal we have icons for Facebook and Twitter on our computer messages,” he told FTW. “But it’s more a cosmetic touch rather than a true business channel.” He did add that his company needed to exist out there in virtual space. “We need to have a presence on social networking sites, but we have not recorded any serious requests through Facebook or Twitter." INSERT & CAPTION 1 How many of the three billion opinions expressed by some 900 million monthly users on Facebook would be about SACD? – Graham Peinke INSERT & CAPTION 2 It’s quite simple to share data using SMSs to i-Phones as just one other means of contact through the social media. – Anthony Dawe