December 2013 - Gong Kenya

Ella Rychlewski

The second half of 2013 has been about walking the walk when it came to Gong’s website and our social media channels. We kicked off with a revamp of www.gongcomms.wpengine.com, making full use of our Creative resources. Our lead designer Rachel then turned her attention to our social media channels and we expanded from Twitter and LinkedIn to include Facebook and Google+.

Our next step was to involve all Gong members in our social media engagement by a rota, led by our internal social media team (SMT). We felt it was important for everyone to have the opportunity to be the voice of Gong and capture the different perspectives of our multinational team. We then provided hands on training, while the SMT kept an eye on the analytics and general progress.

This has translated into the provision of a wider range of social media services for our clients, from design and training (Continental Reinsurance on Facebook and LinkedIn) to design and management (Garden City on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn), as well as content writing and channel management (Homestrings and Olam). Gong also published its first social media briefing note for EMPEA.

And, we have been reminded of a few lessons along the way:

The time required for social media is drastically underestimated and requires specifically allocated resources and channel prioritisation
Sharing the load makes things a lot easier and fosters better awareness of and communication around internal and external goings on
Reaching out to people or organisations during live events amplifies exposure
The conversation about what the company’s tone of voice is and what material is appropriate to post is an ongoing one
Saying it visually makes everything more engaging

Over the Christmas period and in an effort to start the New Year in the same way we mean to continue, we will be sharing the most read and shared material we have published or broadcast over the last six months. So do keep an eye out on our social media channels!

Wishing you all a very happy holiday season!

Isabelle Alenus-Crosby

At Nelson Mandela’s memorial yesterday, President Obama hailed the former South African President as “the last great liberator of the 20th century”.

He is also being remembered for the formidable role he played in building up Africa’s largest economy. Mandela famously believed in the link between economic and political progress, and as a result, South Africa’s gross domestic product grew from less than 1.5 % from 1980 to 1994 to almost 3 % from 1995 to 2003. South Africa is now proudly the “S” in BRICS, and its economy is still going strong 20 years after Mandela first came to power.

Aside from all this, Mandela ensured that South Africa became an important source of economic opportunity for its neighbouring countries too. It can be argued that their successes, in turn, influenced the rest of the continent. Mandela was certainly therefore the great liberator of Africa. According to the latest statistics by the IMF, the continent’s economy is projected to have grown by 4.8% in 2013 and accelerate further to 5.3% in 2014. He didn’t merely bring South Africa into the global economy, but was key in making sure the rest of Africa would also thrive one day.

Last but certainly not least, it is important to note the effect that Mandela had on successive generations of investors, who in order to support him in his struggle against apartheid, came to recognize the power of investment to change things for the better, as well as the impact sustainable and responsible investments could have on anything from fighting injustice to empowering women and combating climate change.

Nelson Mandela has therefore left us with resounding legacies and the world is undoubtedly a much better place thanks to him.

Monthly Archives: December 2013

Gong’s social media resolution: successes and lessons

Mandela – Hero of Africa’s booming economy

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