We are continuing with our weekly series which recognizes listed African companies with a social media footprint.Last week we looked at South Africa’s Standard Bank’s impressive social media integration of social media to forge ties with their customers. Today we shall go to Kenya and recognize Kenya Airways social media efforts.
Kenya Airways is the leading airline of Kenya, with its headquarters in Nairobi. The airline’s main hub is at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, Nairobi. The airline started its operations on February 4, 1977. It plies scheduled flights to a number of destinations in Africa, Asia and a handful of countries in Europe. The airline focuses on Mombasa, the second largest city in Kenya. It has provided access to the European countries including Glasgow, Athens, Rome, Zurich, Birmingham, Manchester, Madrid, Copenhagen, Berlin, Frankfurt and Barcelona, through code share agreements with KLM and Air France.
Apparently, companies that should be reaching out to increasingly tech-savvy consumers aren’t using social media exhaustively…..scratch that….they are not using social media at all. It’s also no secret that the biggest and most influential companies are often the slowest to adapt. For example Kenya airways is just one of three companies listed in the nairobi stock exchange with a twitter page, the other two being media houses!
KQ on twitter
Kenya airways’ twitter page has been carefully designed to exude its Kenyan roots and is one of the best designed pages in Kenya.
KQ on facebook
Kenya airways is also active on the biggest social network in the planet.
KQ on Wikipedia
The wikipedia article about Kenya Airways adequately details what the company does and even some of the recent events. The page is also upto date including the latest press releases. The page also gives some insights on the some of their products and offerings e.g. the entertainment packages of the different aircrafts
KQ on youtube
Kenya airways has a youtube channel that contains the monthly series of their Msafiri TV infotainment.
KQ on LinkedIn
Verdict
Kenya Airways has presence in most Social networking websites and even take time to update them as well which is very impressive bearing in mind that social media is yet to be exploited in Kenya. The only problem is that Kenya Airways (Like the other companies listed on the Nairobi Stock exchange) does not have a blog(or an equivalent) to interact with their customers.
yer keny airways needs a blog and maybe a youtube channel, that will finish their online presence perfectly.
They have a nice reasonable community on facebook, so they are not doing half bad
I love the consistency in branding across all their social channels. I wonder if they have someone specifically designated to lead the social media efforts? – Kenya Airways?
@wmworia
@TechMasai
They have a dedicated person on Social Media, her name’s Anne and she’s great. She works the brand 24 hours a day and takes part in measuring impact across channels and recommending plans of action.
This I know from Africa Gathering where they made a presentation (which I’m surprised they haven’t put up yet)
I am proud of this guys they have taken internet seriously.instead of spending millions on TV and Radio ads why not use free services ?that’s why they have international recognition
Maybe they should use these social channels as other airlines do and keep their customers updated on flight delays!
Last month had a 7hr delay in Nairobi that they knew about ahead of time. Would have been great to get an email notification the flight was delayed.
KQ has done a lot of good work on social media networking n that is a plus. but still as @Rob says they tent to turn a blind eye when they screw up. either way Kudos to Anne for the dedicated work. keep it up!
Great post, i think blog posts like this add so much value to the marketing community,i have learnt some valuable info from you. Keep it Up! Sincerely, The Social Media Trainer
hope the efforts of one samuel ochanji who pioneered this project before handing it over were rewarded..social media is the way to go..good job kQ
It is such a simple place to be, being social. There has been a big uptake in the airline industry in this regard, especially with the low cost/viral aspect of social networking